Saturday, May 30, 2015

On Monday we drove in to town to spectate the good old, traditional Memorial Day parade down Main Street in Bozeman, featuring veterans honoring their comrades who gave all to protect freedom and serve our country. Fifteen percent of Montana's civilian population are veterans, second only to Alaska's sixteen percent.Here are many of the participants, with the Hotel Baxter, The Cannery Lounge, Burger Bob's, Leaf and Bean, Poor Richard's and Cactus Records in the background. We've learned that the Leaf and Bean (a coffee house and bakery) has just closed down and Poor Richard's (a news stand and tobacco shop) is ending its 40 plus year run this week, soon to be replaced by less funky and more upscale retail. That's progress I guess. Click to enlarge. Enjoy!

The Bozeman Post 14 American Legion color guard lead the way.

The Apsaalooke Nation, better known as the Crow Nation, presented their colors as well.

The Ladies Auxiliary was out in force.

An open air bus for some of the older fellows.

POWs and MIAs are not forgotten.

The Bozeman High School Marching Band was out full force in their spiffy new uniforms playing patriotic music. Bozeman is a great music town. It starts in the grade schools, where every public school 5th grader takes up learning to play a musical instrument. The middle and high schools have large and varied music programs. The maestro of the local symphony orchestra will be appearing in Carnegie Hall next week. Most weekdays he can be found on the Bridger Creek Golf course where he stands out from the rest with his rhythmically smooth and syrupy swing. The Gibson manufacturing facility off of 19th Avenue produces the guitar maker's acoustical instruments. Not bad for a town of about 40,000 people.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

We are having an eighth straight day of rain here in Bozeman. While I doubt that is a record it is certainly the longest stretch of precipitation in the three years I've resided in the Treasure State. That, plus the eight days of snow we had in April, will go a long way towards making up for a below normal winter snowpack. Meanwhile, to the south, to say the rainfall in Texas and Oklahoma has been drought busting is to put it mildly. Portions of neighboring Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas and nearby Nebaraska have been inundated as well.Here is the scoop on the record setting month as reported by the Weather Channel.

In Pursuit of May Rainfall Records

From Colorado and Nebraska to Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, several cities have already seen one of their wettest Mays on record. Here's a look at where things stand right now.

Amarillo, Texas – 9.26 inches of rain has fallen through May 27, making it the second-wettest May on record. The all-time record is 9.81 inches in May 1951.

Austin (Camp Mabry), Texas – Extremely heavy rainfall Monday dumped 5.20 inches of rain at Camp Mabry, lifting Austin to its wettest May on record. The rain tally is 16.72 inches of rain through May 27, making it by far the wettest May on record, topping the old record of 14.10 inches in May 1895. It's also the third wettest month on record. September 1921, with 20.78 inches, leads the pack for the city's wettest month.

Corpus Christi, Texas – Rainfall in May 2015 is 13.41 inches through May 27, which is well beyond the previous May record of 10.44 inches that was set in 1941. A total of 4.56 inches fell on Thursday to clinch the record. Amazingly, just nine days prior, exactly 4.56 inches of rain also fell in the city. May 12 and May 21 are now tied as the third-wettest May days in the city's weather records.

According to weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen, May 2015 now exceeds Corpus Christi's total rainfall for the entire drought-parched year of 2011, which was only 12.06 inches.

Houston, Texas – 13.59 inches of rain has fallen through May 27 at Bush Intercontinental Airport on the city's north side, pushing it to fifth place among the city's wettest Mays. The record wet May there is 15.87 inches in 1907.

Lubbock, Texas – 8.41 inches of rain has fallen through May 26, making it Lubbock's second-wettest May on record. The total would have to rise to 12.69 inches to claim the title for the wettest May. According to the National Weather Service, the last time it rained 8 inches or more in a month in Lubbock was September 2008 with 8.70 inches.

Wichita Falls, Texas – May 2015 became the wettest month on record in this northern Texas city early Friday afternoon, May 22, when the city's month-to-date total reached 13.33 inches as of 1:11 p.m. CDT. That broke the record for May and for any month on the calendar, both set in May 1982 with 13.22 inches. Through May 27, the May total has reached 14.53 inches.

According to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, May 2015's rainfall in Wichita Falls exceed that from the previous six Mays combined - 13.41 inches.

Oklahoma City – Oklahoma's capital reached a month-to-date total of 14.53 inches at 5:56 p.m. CDT Saturday, breaking its all-time May rainfall record of 14.52 inches in 2013. Only 21 minutes later, the city broke its June 1989 record of 14.66 inches to become the wettest month in Oklahoma City history. An extremely heavy downpour followed with more than 2 inches of rain.

Oklahoma City's new all-time record monthly rainfall total cracked the 19-inch mark Wednesday, reaching 19.12 inches through May 27. This is more than the average precipitation over a five-month period from March through July (18.68 inches).

Tulsa, Oklahoma – The city's May total is 12.09 inches through May 27, making it the second-wettest May on record. The record of 18.00 inches in May 1943 will be a tough one to beat.

Fort Smith, Arkansas – This western Arkansas city has now recorded its wettest month in history with 18.34 inches of rain through May 27. This broke the previous record of 15.02 inches in June 1945. Several days ago, Fort Smith surpassed its May record of 13.67 inches from 1943.

Wichita, Kansas – The largest city in Kansas topped the 10-inch mark Saturday thanks to heavy rainfall. Through May 27, the city's month-to-date total was 11.69 inches, making it the second-wettest May on record. The standing record for May is 13.14 inches in 2008.

Lincoln, Nebraska – 10.83 inches of rain has fallen through May 27, ranking as the wettest May in the Nebraska capital, topping the previous wettest May record of 10.72 inches set in 1903.

Valentine, Nebraska – 7.07 inches of rain has fallen through May 27, ranking as the third-wettest May. The current record wettest May of 8.96 inches was set in 1962.

Colorado Springs, Colorado – 7.66 inches of rain at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport through May 27 ranks as the second-wettest May on record. The wettest May was in 1935 when 8.10 inches was recorded. Interestingly, several co-operative and volunteer observation sites only a few miles west of the airport have picked up 10 to 12 inches of rain this month.

Of the first 27 days of May, 21 have had measurable precipitation (.01 inch or greater) at the Colorado Springs airport; that is an all-time record. Five other days have had a trace of precipitation, and only one has been completely dry.

Pueblo, Colorado – A total of 5.17 inches of rain has fallen through May 27, making it the second wettest May on record. The wettest May was in 1957 when 5.43 inches was measured.

Every day since May 5 – that's 23 straight days as of this writing – has brought at least 4 inches of rainfall to at least one location in the state of Texas, according to CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. At least 100 of the volunteer network's 1,699 reporting sites in Texas have recorded at least 10 inches of rain this month. The wettest of all has been Pottsboro, near Lake Texoma along the Oklahoma-Texas border with a total of 22.70 inches through May 27.

Among other states in the May rainy zone, top month-to-date totals by state include 19.75 inches near Uniontown in northwest Arkansas; 16.59 inches near Ruston in northern Louisiana; 13.73 inches in the Ivywild neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado; 12.85 inches near Fairbury in southeast Nebraska; 14.33 inches southeast of Topeka, Kansas; and 12.87 inches in Plattsburgh, Missouri near Kansas City.

The totals are prodigious. They would make Noah and his two-by-two legions proud. Here is the full size Texas and Oklahoma 30-day precipitation map.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

The North Shore and Western is still there -- remnants thereof that is.When we blogged on the first quarter century of Glen View Club in Golf, Illinois, one of the coolest discoveries was the find that the club was once served by a trolley or streetcar line that ran 3.75 miles from the club grounds to Evanston, where the bulk of the membership resided at that time. The line jutted through Harms Woods across the East Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, and then paralleled Old Orchard/Harrison Road into Evanston. The single track system comprised a streetcar, a snow plow and two employees. It was operated for the convenience of the membership and transported employees and caddies as well. It carried Evanston picnickers to Harms Woods too. The streetcar line operated between 1907 and 1933, when improved roads and rapidly increasing automobile ownership made it obsolete. We identified the right of way's route by reviewing old maps,

USGS 1953 topographic map showing Glen View Club, Harms Woods and the North Shore and Western right of way.

and aerial photos,

Aerial image of Glen View Club and Harms Woods, 1939, showing North Shore and Western right of way across top.

and satellite images.

Satellite vuew of Glen View Club and Harms Woods, 2005, faint image of North Shore and Western right of way across top.

Looking for more evidence, we put out an "all cameras" bulletin.

From the North Branch trail, which runs just west of the river, it would be straightforward to explore the old right of way, and, identify, perhaps, what remains in the way of old ties, rails or earthworks. I would not be surprised if footings of the trolley bridge over the river remain visible as well. These explorations I cannot perform from Bozeman, Montana, so I can only hope an intrepid reader will do so, and photograph and report on what they find.

Brian is past President of the Professional Photographers Association

of Northern Illinois, and is a member of the Professional

Photographers of America , the American Society of Photographers

and the Associated Professional Photographers of Illinois.

Sure enough, Brian Morrison, an intrepid professional photographer working out of Northbrook, Illinois, responded. Brian found time in between weddings and commercial photo shoots to reconnoiter Harms Woods off of Old Orchard Road and the North Branch trail, searching for remains of the old right of way. He reports

After a trip to Harms Wood this afternoon, I was looking for more info on the NS&W and came across your blog. There are definitely visible remnants of the line. I had done the same recon with old and new aerial photos that you did, and came to the same conclusion - that research onsite was necessary.

Brian found berms that were built up to raise the right of way above the marshy bottom land, remnants of concrete piers and footings, and areas layered with stone aggregate. Here are several of his photos.

Remnants of concrete pier, single wooden bridge/trestle support post embedded, east side of river, short view.

Remnants of concrete pier, single wooden bridge/trestle support post embedded, east side of river, long view

Path trod on right of way berm extending between river and North Branch trail.

Concrete footing embedded in berm.

Another concrete remnant.

Brian reports no evidence of rails or ties was found. He surmises the rails were scrapped to support the World War II war effort. That thought is fitting for those who we honor for giving their lives for our country this Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to Brian and thanks to those men and women.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

We wax nostalgic in our Morton Grove history posts. The research is fun and interesting. The posts are pretty popular too. So I've been poking around, looking for fresh material on Morton Grove people, places and things from the "old days" suitable for research and writing. It is an easy call to work toward a post or posts about the Poehlmann Bros. greenhouse operation, but not for today. The firm opened in Morton Grove in 1887 and was a major local employer until it succumbed to the Great Depression. Poehlman Bros. was a sprawling, nationally known and immensely successful business, at its peak said to be "the largest of its kind in existence."

Ad in the Evening Times (Grand Forks N. Dak.), November 13, 1911. "We are distributors for this territory for the famous Poehlmann Bros. Co, the largest, most modern, best equipped flower growing establishment in the world, employing the most skilled workmen and producing flowers that command the patronage of the most critical public, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Winnipeg to New Orleans.

There is a mountain of accessible research material on Poehlmann Bros. It will take quite some time to sift through the materials and organize thoughts. In the meantime I've been looking for projects that can be digested and presented in more readily manageable chunks.So I poked around looking for 1950s and 1960s material on Morton Grove public schools, especially District 70 and Park View School, which I attended, hoping to find newsworthy items. I used the name "Eckhardt" in a few searches, keying off of Edward E. Eckhardt, who was superintendent of schools and unquestioned authority during my nine years (K through 8) at Park View. Entering "Eckhardt" together with "Morton Grove" in search engines turned up plenty of hits in the news clipping services. But very little was on Edward. Almost everything was on his brother Carl. Some of the best finds are accidental. There are dozens of reports on Carl's decade long standoff with the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. The brotherhood was an irresistible force. It encountered a man who was an immovable object.

Brother Carl and his modest two pump gas station on the northeast corner of Austin and Lincoln avenues, stood toe-to-toe against the the teamsters union. The union local he took on was so tough that it prevailed time and again in internal turf battles fought against the Jimmy Hoffa led national union. Carl insisted on principle. The teamsters insisted on dues and more dues. Carl withstood pressures that made his competitors wilt. Litigation and lobbying ensued. The resulting publicity revealed Carl's mettle and exposed the seedy side of the United States labor union movement.

We have had drenching rains in the southwest Montana valleys the last day or so and much welcomed accretion to snow packs at elevation. Here is the southerly ridge view locally at Bridger Bowl this morning.

I wanted to know just how much rainfall we have had so I looked to the National Weather Service report.

According to the vaunted United States Weather Service the 24 hour rainfall through 0945 this morning at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport was 0.34 inches. Oh hell. During the time alone that we shivered through the lacrosse game last night we got that much rain. Anyone who has stuck their head outside during the last 24 hours knows that the Weather Service reading is aburd.Then I looked at the rainfall reports for the amateur stations around town.

A couple of stations have readings that are obviously in error. But the Tayebeshockup station, which is a mile or so up the road from us, measured rainfall of 1.02 inches. Baxter Meadows which is out towards the airport, rings in at 1.59 inches. For our area, which averages about 16 inches of precipitation annually, those are very significant rain totals.Here is what the Billings Gazette reported locally.

Steady precipitation since Friday dropped over an inch of water on Billings and set a daily record for rainfall in Livingston.

The National Weather Service office in Billings logged a daily rainfall total of 1.32 inches in Livingston for Saturday, shattering the old record of .74 inches set on May 16, 1977, Meteorologist Brian Tesar said.

The precipitation from the three-day storm was heaviest in the Yellowstone Valley area.

“Generally, the heaviest rainfall fell from Livingston to Park City,” Tesar said

By Sunday afternoon, Friday’s storm had dropped 4 inches of rain in Reed Point and 3.1 inches near Greyclff..

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Congratulations Lisa Mensing and the Bozeman High School girls lacrosse team for winning the state championship tonight in a driving rainstorm and 41 degree temps. Shoveling your practice field clear of snow for those April practice sessions totally paid off. No wimps here. Way to go girls!

Friday, May 15, 2015

I was looking for something small and friendly and real, but with three kids in tow and decades of having lived inside the Beltway one of the criteria I laid down when we were deciding where to move for our retirement home, is it had to be a college town. From the adult perspective, a college town has at some level almost anything that you will find in a major metropolitan area. I was thinking of plays, music, art, sports and even a museum or two or three Also, university faculty and graduate students generally demand good public schools and those demands translate into solid education opportunities for our children.So far we have been very pleased with the elementary schools in Bozeman. And this year with a high school freshman and an exchange student attending Bozeman high school we have been amazed with the vibe, the spirit, the diversity of programs and ideas, and the intellectual challenges available there.So it was not particularly surprising the other day when it came out that US News and World Report rated BHS the best high school in Montana.

The report named Bozeman in the top 1,000 high schools across the U.S. at No. 731 -- and first overall in Montana. Students at Bozeman High said they think that's due, in part, to the close relationship between the students and community.

"They try to help out and be nice to everyone that they meet and try to help in the community," said Bozeman High freshman Sam Keshinshian.

Others said it came down to the great teaching staff.

"We have really good teachers, so we do learn a lot and we are really, a lot of us are really smart," said Bozeman High freshman Emily Tonkinson.

Our freshman and exchange student
participated on Bozeman High's award
winning "Hawkers" speech and debate
team this school year.

I thought to check to see how Wakefield High School, which is where our kids would have attended in Arlington, Virginia, stacked up against Bozeman. Arlington likes to claim everything it does is "world class." They certainly spend like it is. Arlington public schools expenditure per pupil is close to twice what is spent out here in Bozeman. It is no coincidence that our property taxes here on a dramatically bigger house and an immensely larger lot and scenic views are a little more than half of what we would be paying back in Arlington. We are 731 and Wakefield is 1,257. Check. And mate.
.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The grounds crew at Cottonwood Hills was aerating the greens yesterday so we loaded up Larry's Suburban and car pooled down to Ennis to play golf at Madison Meadows. I got some pictures on the trip out the side window, along Norris road, through the Canyon along the Madison River, and of the snow capped Tobacco Root mountains to the West. In another month or so, tourists in large numbers with their RV's and campers will be headed this way, but they will continue down beyond Ennis, past Quake Lake and on to West Yellowstone, as home base for their Yellowstone National Park excursion. We send an anticipatory welcome. Come one and all.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

... it may be but there are times when you ought to just forget about it.

Michael Brown was up from Texas driving his white Chevrolet Monte Carlo though Belgrade. When stopped for suspicion of DUI, he added a new un-requested element to the Standard Field Sobriety Test.

Belgrade Police Officer Jesse Stovall spotted the vehicle as it passed him on Main Street. Stovall saw the vehicle weave out of its lane. Stovall pulled the driver over and made contact with Michael Brown, the sole occupant of the vehicle.

Brown lit a cigarette and Stovall said, “his dexterity in his fingers appeared to be diminished as he dropped the lighter on his chest,” charging documents allege.

Stovall asked Brown for his registration and insurance. Brown handed over his insurance card, but not his registration. Stovall noted that Brown’s eyes were watery and bloodshot and his speech was slurred. Stovall said the odor of an alcoholic beverage was wafting from the car.

Officer Stovall ordered the man out of his car to perform Standard Field Sobriety Tests. As he exited his car, Brown grabbed an open can of Budweiser from his center console and attempted to drink it.

Sobriety test -- check. Brown's BAC registered at .198, more than twice the legal limit. He is charged with his third DUI, violating the open container law and resisting arrest.Also in Belgrade, Roy J. Littlefield "borrowed" an acquaintance's vehicle for quick errand which turned into a day, and another day, and then another day. And, as it transpired, Littlefield could not resist letting the police know how much he liked them.

The man told Littlefield he could borrow his vehicle for 30 minutes. The vehicle owner said Littlefield never returned the car.

Belgrade Police Officer Anthony Young was patrolling in Belgrade just after midnight on April 13 when he spotted the stolen vehicle. Young activated his emergency lights in an attempt to get the driver to pull over.

Littlefield instead accelerated in the stolen vehicle.

“A brief pursuit ensued,” Young wrote in his report. “I estimated that the above vehicle was traveling at least 10 miles over the posted speed limit of 25 MPH.”

Littlefield abruptly stopped the vehicle, jumped out of the car and started running through Lewis and Clark Park.

Young followed the man on foot and repeatedly told him to stop.

Littlefield ignored the officer.

“I lost sight of the male due to it being dark at the time,” Young stated in his report. “The male was not able to be located that night.”

A warrant was issued for Littlefield’s arrest. On the Belgrade Police Department Facebook page, Littlefield “liked” his own “Wanted” poster and shared it on his personal page with a salty message to police.

Here is the the Belgrade PD Facebook post. Mom, sister and friends got in on the act too.

Based on his Facebook admission of running from the police and the report of the vehicle owner that Littlefield took his car, Littlefield was charged with eluding and obstructing a peace officer, unauthorized use of a vehicle, driving with a suspended license and driving without insurance. Littlefield was also fined for being in a park after dark during his dash from police.

Littlefield is sitting in jail at the Gallatin County Detention Center on $10,000 bond.

About Me

I had things I wanted to say and became tired of trying to force fit views by commenting on other people's blogs, so I started this enterprise. Contact me at gradyfosterone@gmail.com
Your comments are welcome. If they are relevant, and when negative, stick to sticking it to only to public figures and don't defame or invade anyone's privacy. I'll publish them.
Extended stories about life and family history are especially fun to write. We have the great fortune to have had many relatives who had prominent civic, professional, and/or political lives, which yields many thousands of references memorialized in press clippings and otherwise. I have received plenty of help from relatives who choose to remain unnamed. Those stories garner high readership. They are tagged with "Bathgate."
I would say my politics are libertarian leaning. I seldom vote for Democrats, and usually don't vote for Republicans -- I have been known to get writer's cramp in the voting booth.
Please do read and enjoy.